Our new year starts out with signs of struggle for a private equity unit of one of China’s biggest finance groups, as media reports emerge that China Minsheng Investment Group, the parent firm of Hong Kong-listed developer SRE Group, has failed to meet a bond obligation due this month. Also in the news, a Hong Kong co-working startup is taking its shared office game to India, and mainland heavyweight R&F is struggling to make progress on a portfolio of California projects. All these stories and more await you below.
China Minsheng Investment Group Misses Bond Payment Deadline
Two large Chinese borrowers missed payment deadlines this month, underscoring the risks piling up in a credit market that’s witnessing the most company failures on record.
China Minsheng Investment Group Corp., a private investment group with interests in renewable energy and real estate, hasn’t returned money to bondholders that it had pledged to repay on Feb. 1, according to people familiar with the matter. And Wintime Energy Co., which defaulted last year, didn’t honor part of a restructured debt repayment plan last week, separate people said. Read more>>
HK Co-Working Startup Garage Society Opens First India Location
A Hong Kong-based flexible co-working space provider has launched their first co-working space in Cybercity, Gurugram spread over 19,000 sq ft. It plans to open four new workspaces across Gurugram, Delhi and Noida besides exploring other cities such as Pune, Bengaluru and Mumbai.
After successfully launching its first 300 seater co-working hub in Cybercity, Garage Society has plans to open at least four new workspaces across Gurugram, Delhi and Noida. Read more>>
Mainland Developer R&F Stumbles in Attempt to Build Golden State Portfolio
In 2014 and 2015, Chinese real estate development company Z&L Properties, a division of China’s Guangzhou R&F, jumped into the California market with a splash, going on a buying spree that would eventually include 12 housing sites in the Bay Area and Los Angeles that, when built out, would yield 3,400 condos.
Z&L Properties was “destined to become California’s premier condominium developer,” the company website stated at the time. That hasn’t exactly happened. Instead, years after the sites were purchased, none of the projects has been completed, and several have been derailed by lawsuits, cost overruns and building code violations. Read more>>
Hong Kong’s Supply of Unsold Homes Rises 10% to Nearly 3,300 Units
Hong Kong home builders could face greater pressure to slash prices as the number of completed but unsold new flats they held increased at the end of last year.
Analysts said some home builders would offload stock by cutting prices by 5 per cent to 10 per cent from the current levels on completed unsold units, stepping up efforts to lower inventory as the government’s proposed vacancy tax looms. Read more>>
Reliance Realty Plans 30M Square Foot Fintech Centre in Mumbai
Reliance Realty, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, plans to develop a Smart Fintech Centre in Navi Mumbai for which it has got the required approval, a company statement said Monday.
“The Department of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) granted approval to Reliance Realty for development of the Smart Fintech Centre at its Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai, under the Government of Maharashtra’s new Fintech Policy,” Reliance Communications statement said. Read more>>
Citizens Spar with Planners Over Prime Bangkok Plot
The fate of a large green space in the middle of one of the world’s most built-up cities is pitting communities and conservationists against developers and cash-strapped authorities in a battle that is increasingly common in Asia.
The Makkasan area in central Bangkok, measuring about 80 hectares – or roughly 80 rugby fields – houses a train station, a workshop, warehouses and some homes in a green expanse that stands in contrast to the sleek high-rise buildings all around. Read more>>
Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
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